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Sunday, 15 March 2015

A week or so ago, probably a bit more since I take my sweet time these days there were some announcements made. These announcements had two things in common. They were about the game engines, and they were about future of free game engines. I am talking about the announcements regarding Source 2, Unreal 4, and Unity 5.
If this was a poker I'd be waiting for a 3, 6, or an ace at this point for a straight.

As I do not really know a lot about the game engines I cannot say much about the technical side of things. What I can say though that in this case free means a lot of good things for the gaming in general. We have all probably played more than just a couple of games made in these three engines or their direct predecessors. And just from our own experience we can say that the technical side of these engines is in general nothing you can complain about.

Monday, 2 February 2015

It has been almost a month since two lunatics decided the best way to defend their God was to shoot a bunch of innocent people for drawing bad cartoons. I cannot say I felt much of anything when I first heard about the shooting in Paris. Just another shooting I thought, what is so special about this one? Before the terrorists decided to attack those cartoonists, I did not even know for Charlie Hebdo.

But the more I read, the more I hated it. I am a firm believer in the Freedom of Speech, in fact this is one of those things where I will never accept any kind of compromise. In my honest opinion, you can say out loud whatever you want and nobody should harm you for it. Even hate speech. In my mind, the state can take care of those spreading hate speech on its own, and thus ensure that an individual's rights are not trampled under mongering of a few.

Monday, 5 January 2015

It has been awhile since I wrote something. I would like to say that I have a convenient excuse at the ready, but I think it does not really matter. It was holidays, and what is more I was lazy. And the last thing that has crossed my mind in these days was to drag my ass to the chair and force myself until I write something. That said, this is as good time as any to get back to writing, and today's topic is recent announcement my Perihelion Interactive that The Mandate will be released about a year later than it was originally intended.

As someone who originally supported The Mandate campaign on Kickstarter I am really not thrilled about this announcement. I was looking forward to exploring, ok let us be honest, conquering the galaxy in 2015. As it seems, I will have to wait one more year at bare minimum before I get the game I payed for in my hands. Let this be a lesson to all of you who fund a project on kickstarter on any other crowdfunding site. And let this be a lesson to all you who preorder as well.

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

I have talked about this problem before. Hell, I warned of this problem the first time I learnt about the shared experience among the team in Heroes of the Storm. I am talking about feeding here. For all those that ever played any game like DOTA, DOTA2, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Heroes of Newerth, Smite or any other I might and probably have missed, and probably familiar with the concept of feeding. If you let the enemy kill you, he gets additional gold, and experience. If this turns into a pattern, then the enemy got a significant advantage over you and your team. At that point the damage is already done, and there is no point in searching for patsy. You might have overextended on the lane, forgot to ward a certain brush, played too aggressively, or were simply jumped in your own jungle.

The result is always the same. One of the enemies (in best case scenario) just got fed, and he or she is ready kick ass and chew bubblegum, and they are in short supply of the latter. At that point only thing you as a team can do is set up a series of successful ambushes and take the gold and experience back from the one you fed before. At least that is in theory. Reality is rather grim in comparison as in general at this point two or three in the team will resign to defeat, and will not even bother any more, someone will be pushing lanes, and the last one remaining will either go offline, spam the chat with nonsense, or roam the jungle in order to do something but end up feeding.

Friday, 19 December 2014

After a bit more than a year-long pause I returned to Witcher II in order to finish it after I saw the latest trailer. I have already talked about my experiences of the First, and Second Act, and I was really excited to get back to it, but at the same time I stalled and made excuses to myself because I was afraid the game would end too fast, and I was really enjoying it. It turned out I was right. The third act, as I left with the Roche for the Loc Muinne turned out to be the shortest of them all.

I met my old friends from the first game, the Order of the Flaming Rose and they were not really thrilled to see me. Probably something to do with me siding with Scoia'tael and fighting against them. But then again, these holier-than-thou bunch of hypocrites was stealing my business, killing monsters. And to top it off, they were doing it for free. It was only logical to join the rebellious elves and dwarves. While their interests might have not aligned with my own, they at least did not steal my profits. As I see it, God intended for witchers to do the witcher's job, and noble knights and crusaders should focus on the heretics and the wicked instead.

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

First a couple of clarifications. I saw the first trailer of Hatred, and based upon it I decided the game is not my cup of tea. I saw the "gameplay" videos of Dear Esther and came to conclusion that visual novel is a more correct term for it than calling it a video game. You might call it elitist, but I actually expect certain level of gameplay out of a game, not just walking around doing nothing. But then again, to each his own, and even that is on Steam.

Now some of you might want to argue that Dear Esther in comparison to Hatred is nowhere near as violent and homicidal. You would be right. But then again, a lot of other games on Steam are far more both violent and homicidal than Dear Esther, and are still on sale on Steam. Many games on Steam are already more gory, brutal, and horrific than Hatred. We cannot really judge what kind of game Hatred really is, because it is not out yet, because it doesn't seem to have any platform where it can be sold, and because many of will not even give it a chance. Two of the three facts require no arguing, while one of those three is rather weak reasoning appealing to our morality.

Saturday, 13 December 2014

As quick as I was to volounteer for MMO Gypsy'sBloggy XMAS event where we would write something about the gaming and community, I had trouble actually writing something on the topic. I read the other posts that came before me hoping there would come some sort of epiphany. And since the thirteen is already accursed number in the heads of the most, I was not about to let you all down. As I was reminiscing, trying to recall what is even worth to remember in my relatively long history of MMO gaming, I came to conclusion that there is not much on this particular topic. Most that is worth retelling is about Me, Myself, and I. And while I would love to indulge in it, it is not really appropriate considering the occasion. So I was thinking what else is there. You see, I always was, still am, a person that cares only for those close to me. As I see it, far from heart, even further from the mind. And that in the end brought me to the tale I am about to tell you on this Thirteenth day of Blogging Advent Calendar.

It was back in the days when Winters were cold and snowy, Summers warm and sunny. In Autumns leaves abandoned the trees, and in every Spring life would start anew with flowers blooming after a long break. Truly those were wondrous times full of joy and glory. As I hit level 80 a month after everyone else on good old Daggerspine I was in search of a new guild. My old crumbled apart. That was something of a common occurrence back in the days. One day a guild could be the best on the realm, the next day a guild was no more. In any case, I started looking for a new "home". I went through a couple of young budding guilds, a couple of veteran, searching for my place in Azeroth. None really fit. I knew that and I left those nameless guilds without any additional thought.